Urgent
Josh
It had been a week and most of the cells were neutralized. The military had it from there and I was on my way home. As soon as the jet landed, I ran down to the bunker. I was exhausted but nothing was keeping me from Morgan and Addie. I couldn’t get the door opened fast enough. I ran through those tunnels like my life depended on it. I didn’t stop at the command center or my apartment. Instead, I flung the door open to Creed’s apartment and spotted Addie first.
“Jwosh!” She ran up and jumped into my arms. I shut my eyes and let it sink in that I was finally holding her. I missed her so damn bad, and she was on my mind constantly.
“Where’s your mom?” I asked.
“Sweeping in dare.” She pointed at a bedroom door.
I set her down and gave Jenny a nod as I quietly walked over and opened the door. There she was, my sweet pudgy girl, sleeping peacefully on her side. I gently took a seat on the side of the bed and looked down at her. Damn, I was so relieved. I pushed a hair from her face to get a better look and her eyes fluttered open. She looked confused but when she looked at me her eyes flew open.
“Josh! Thank God!” She pulled me down for a hug and I laughed because she couldn’t sit her pregnant ass up quick enough. She held on to me for dear life. “Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt at all?” She was shaking as she held on to me.
“No, it was successful and there were no casualties on my team. We are the first ones in and the others will be in this evening. Have you seen my family?” I was worried about them as well.
She was still holding on to me. “Your dad and Keith are in your apartment with Julia and her family. They’re all fine. Any word on Creed?” She pulled back to look at me.
“No, I’m sorry. Communications are still down, and Axton would probably know better than me.” My eyes dropped and I looked at her belly. “Holy shit, it’s only been a week. Those boys must be growing fast.”
She laughed. “Who says they’re not girls?”
I chuckled. “Definitely not Addie. You know we have to break her of this boy thing before these guys are born.”
Morgan sighed. “We’ve been working on it. She’s made it a whole day without sticking her tongue out at Dillon. They even played house with the other kids. Oddly enough, I think Dillon might be a future submissive.” She giggled.
I laughed. “Addie is definitely the boss of all boys. She will be a General someday”
She reached up and slid her fingers through my hair. “You’ve got some explaining to do to your family. To say they were shocked when their house was invaded, and they were forced into a bunker is an understatement.”
I groaned. “A lot of secrets have been told I presume. We have a lot of nondisclosure’s to have signed before anyone gets to leave.”
“Do you know how much longer we will be down here?” She asked.
“I’m not sure. We are expected in the command center now to debrief. If I learn anything new I will let you know. Go ahead and get some rest, I probably won’t see you until tomorrow if Axton doesn’t have any news. I need a shower and some sleep.” I kissed her forehead and left the room. Addie gave me one more hug before I left and walked into the command center.
Axton turned and smiled. “Welcome home, buddy.” He gave me a side hug and a slap on the back.
“Its good to be back. How long until the rest of my team is expected?” I asked as I took a seat.
“They’re doing what you should be doing. Have you checked in on Morgan or your family?”
“Morgan yes, dad no. He’s going to have a lot of questions.” I didn’t think I had the energy.
“So will Keith. He’s been snooping around. Mostly just trying to figure out how to escape this place. They’re upset that they haven’t heard from Mia yet.”
I sat back in my chair. “She’s fine in Louisiana. The whole state was cleared from what I heard. Honestly I was surprised New Orleans wasn’t on the list.”
I looked up and saw my team begin to file in and we moved to the conference room. I asked the main question before any of us sat down. “Any word from Creed or General Pendleton?”
Axton took a seat and pointed at my chair. He looked at the door to make sure it was shut before answering. “Pendleton reported in but not Creed. I guess he had to hit the sand running and there’s no word yet. There is some chatter that’s unconfirmed that it was a heavy loss mission. They got the target and as much out of him as possible, but they ran into some trouble on their way out. The same shit as always. They get the job done but something happens on the way out. We do know the last communication that was the list sent over to Pendleton was from Creed himself.”
“No word on an evacuation mission?” I was not optimistic after hearing that news.
He nodded. “Yeah, remember Barnes from Seal Team 6 we met a few years back?”
I nodded.
“They sent him in with a team, but they’ve also gone dark. That was all I was told. I’ve not said anything to Morgan. I don’t want to upset her when nothing has been confirmed.” He said.
“Yeah, that’s probably best. Any thoughts of putting a rescue team together?”
He shook his head. “No, Creed made me agree to stay out of it before he left. Our focus was to stay on our contracts. We’ve already had to put off one mission and probably more if communication isn’t restored soon.”
“Any ETA on going topside? I’m sure everyone is going insane.” I asked.
He nodded. “I’m only going to ask for two more days. I just want to be sure the perimeter is still secure, and the cartel isn’t going to cause problems. They’ve been MIA since all this started.”
“Any problems here at home base?” I asked.
“Not really, just Creeds brothers using all the hot water on this end to jerk off and there’s a lot of confusion. Your dad is just like the other two families brought in with no clue what was happening. Let’s debrief, I want to go back to trying to find Creed and the rest of you need rest for the night.”
My team pulled out their small notebooks and read off all the identities of the men we took out. It took about an hour then I went to my apartment and dealt with my family before finally heading to bed.
Morgan
I was relieved to see Josh, but I still had a bad feeling about Creed. We were about to head up for the first time since it all began. Poor Nikko and me, because he probably lost all his potty training skills. He had to go on puppy pads, and I had to clean up after him constantly. The mood of everyone was a mixture of somber and annoyed. Everyone spent way too much time together and there was still no word on Creed. Communications were restored and I was anxious to check my phone. I wasn’t sure if it would show text messages or missed calls, so I was hoping there was something from Jake. I knew there wouldn’t be anything from Creed. He would have known I couldn’t use my phone and would have went through Axton to reach me.
We each took our turn on the elevator to go up. Great grandpa had a meltdown because he thought he was being put in a gas chamber. Zoey had to give him a sedative a few times during the stay, but she did it one last time and Josh ended up carrying him.
We were informed before we went back up that we were once again on lockdown for an undetermined amount of time. Except it would be different with my family staying in our home.
My dad, Uncle Darren, and Patrick were all waiting for us and I never hugged my dad so tight in my life.
After that, the first thing I did was take a hot shower then went downstairs to watch the news. The more I watched the news the clearer I understood how lucky we got. There were cells in every big and small cities across the country. They talked about the most elite special ops group that organized and deployed for one particular mission. They mentioned heavy casualties and I broke down in front of my whole family. The one person I needed was Josh and he wasn’t home. He left with Uncle Darren almost immediately.
Josh
Andrea was kissing down my neck as I watched Bolton lead Darren to a private room. It looked like Uncle Darren was about to get his freak on with the hot psychologist.
Fifteen minutes later I was balls deep in Andrea. She wasn’t someone new, unfortunately, but she was definitely what I needed. I had her in a private room and fucking her against a wall. I kept having to push away my thoughts to concentrate. I was worried about Creed and Morgan, but tried like hell to fuck the hell out of the girl anyway.
We went from the wall, to the bed and I tore that pussy up until she came and I finally got my release just as there was a pounding on the door.
“Fuck…off!” My toes curled and I rode out my orgasm.
“Its about Creed. Axton needs us in the command center, so zip it up. I don’t think it’s good news!” Baros bellowed out through the door.
“Shit.” I pulled off the condom and tossed it in the trash before getting dressed.
“Sorry, gotta go!” I ran out of the room barefoot, carrying my boots and shirt while trying to buckle my belt. I went from total bliss to almost sick in a blink of an eye.
Bolton went running out of her room as fast as me while she buttoned her blouse. We hopped on the elevator but neither of us had much to say. She looked as sick as I felt. Creed was our anchor, the most beloved member of the Originals. If anything happened to him, we were fucked. Not about Creed’s Lake, but he was our brother. I didn’t even dare to think about Morgan and Addie yet. I just couldn’t go there and wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready. As soon as the doors opened, we both went running. When we got there, Axton wasn’t even there yet.
It was quiet in the room as we waited. I knew it was bad, if it wasn’t it wouldn’t have been so urgent. It was protocol for us to be summoned when there was a loss on a mission. We didn’t do it for injuries. I looked around the room and every single person was pale. We were all obviously thinking the worst.
As soon as Axton entered the room we all stood. It must have been the fight or flight instinct we had to prepare ourselves.
“Have a seat.” Axton ordered and he looked like shit. It was one bad sign after another.
He sat then looked at each of us. “What I say does not leave this room. I do not want Morgan to know anything until we have confirmation.”
My heart was racing, and I was about to puke.
“As we already knew, Creed’s team experienced heavy losses. They had one hell of a mission, and it seems Isis was who interrupted their evacuation. They came under heavy fire, and they put up a good fight. As you all know, I am listed as Creed’s emergency contact. I have not received the call or a visit yet, but Pendleton said the last he heard Creed died during transport to a forward surgical team. He has not and I will repeat this, he has not received the Casualty Feeder Report, and nothing is confirmed. All reports to him are considered premature until he gets that report. The entire team is either dead or severely injured. I am telling you this now to prepare yourselves.” He looked at me. “I don’t want you to leave Morgan or Addie’s side. I don’t want them catching wind of this until we know for sure.”
The room was so quiet and somber that if we listened hard enough we could probably hear our heartbeats.
“You’re saying there’s still hope?” Granger asked.
Axton was fighting his emotions. That guy was his best friend and trying his hardest to hold himself together. “I’m saying there’s a very low probability that he’s still alive. Pendleton sounded very sure of himself.” He answered. “I need a volunteer to take over in the command center. I’m not worth a shit at this point and I’ve only caught a few hours sleep for over a week.”
I saw his hands shaking. He looked at me. “I don’t think I can handle looking at Morgan right now, so please forgive me for not paying her a visit.”
I bit back my own tears and gave him a nod.
“I’ll take over. Go home and get some rest.” Irons volunteered.
“I’ll assist.” Jennings spoke up.